Out the river at 0640, just barely needing lights, as day was breaking on really smooth water and with a near clear sky.
Ran to the S tower just to look around, then the couple of miles to ET, where we dropped lines and messed around for an hour without any luck. Good returns on fish there, but they weren't studyin' us.
Then we went about 9 miles west and a little south to a number I got off the restroom wall at Willie's (just kiddin'). Dropped the anchor in 114' water over what looked to be good bottom with lots of fish. Red snapper was the fish of the day there. Problem was, mostly shorts just under 16", but we did pickup 4 keepers for the couple of hours spent with them.
Because the forcast called for sctd afternoon thundershowers and being about 38 from the E pass, we decided to start working our way back in around 1300. We did ride around the area and marked several likely spots to try later.
The water remained at 1-2' or less. The mid day heat was pretty intense, but there was a 5-6mph wind, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Once again, I would like to thank whoever came up with the idea of sun screen.
Our next stop of consequence was about 5-6 sw of the O tower at a couple of spots in 85-90'. We caught 6-8 red grouper, with 2 being so close to 20", but decided to leave them to grow.
My neighbor Freddy did catch a 23" gag, which was his first of that variety in about 6 months. He also, caught a nice spanish mac a little over 20".
Our original plan was to be back by 3 or so, but we stayed with it til around 5, as the water was still good at about 1-2'and light wind. The thurndershowers held off, but there was a lot of towering cu, and there was storm clouds to the north over land, that nagged at my attention. Guess it was up in the forest since we never got any rain in Carrabelle.
The highlight of the day occurred just before we decided to hang it up. Something hit my bait hard and decided it would take the Penn combo away from me. if it could. After about 10 minutes or so of wordering what I had, we got a glimps of the 6-7 foot nurse, which put the whammy on my back and arms. We horsed it around on the surface long enough to take some pictures, before cutting it loose. In my book it was a beautiful creature. It is my understanding, that while they are docile, they will put a hurting on you if they get their mouth on you.
To sum it up, it was a great day in the company of a good neighbor, and we caught enough fish to keep it interesting.
but the last three times we did go we caught one of those sharks. Very cool. Thanks for the report and pics. 